Hunter's 'Mistaken Identity' leads to father's death, but also to sharing the power of faith with others

Mark Witt holds a copy of the current Field & Stream magazine which features an article about his father's death in 1974 due to a deer hunter's mistake, and the trip Mark and his brother, Dan, took into those same Pennsylvania woods last summer. Witt is also holding an evangelistic tract the brothers wrote, "Mistaken Identity," telling how their faith has helped them heal over the years since their father was killed. (The Huntsville Times/Bob Gathany)

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- Mark Witt's story is of wrenching loss and anger and the healing power of faith. Of brothers and sisters growing up without their father, of their mother living without a husband because of a deer hunter's mistake in the Pennsylvania woods just 11 days before Christmas 1974.

The article also reconstructs what happened the afternoon of Dec. 14, 1974, and afterward. For decades, Mark and brother Dan struggled to understand how God could let this happen to their dad, a good and Christian man.

"The only thing that could get us through something like that is our faith and knowing that we would see our father again one day in Heaven because of his relationship with Christ," Mark said. "I mean, that's the only way we could ever have gotten through that."

Mark Witt is now a 49-year-old Defense Logistics Agency customer service representative to the Army Aviation and Missile Command on Redstone Arsenal. He lives in Madison with his wife, Carla, has three kids and teaches Sunday School at Capshaw Baptist Church. Dan Witt lives on 21 acres in Virginia with his wife and has two grown boys.

Mark was 12, his brother Dan 14, when their dad was killed. Walter DeSales Witt was a ninth-grade science teacher who was very involved in church and not shy about sharing his Christianity. Mark said his father included Creationism, as well as evolution, in his classroom and was open about his beliefs with the students on his track team, at the grocery store, at the trout stream, hunting or wherever. He loved the outdoors.

"Even before we had hunting licenses we would be out in the woods with dad, carrying his rabbit and his grouse and his pheasant," Mark said. "So we were already hooked on it."

On that cold Saturday in 1974, Walt, 38, took his sons deer hunting in the snowy woods near Meyersdale, Pa. He was to speak at a nearby church the next morning and had already begun writing a sermon, "Heaven," addressing the Bible passages referring to streets of gold.

In the woods, Mark got cold and left for his grandfather's house. Dan and his dad took up separate positions and Walt sat back against a tree, waiting in a kind of blind formed by branches.

At some point, in another group of trees, another hunter spotted movement among the branches nearly 150 feet away. He was color blind; he didn't have a scope on his rifle; and a stump obscured his view of the sitting man, who had on a fluorescent orange vest. There were many factors contributing to his terrible mistake. He shot at what he thought was a deer, and killed Walter Witt.

For years, Mark said, the boys wrestled with anger -- sometimes acted out in dangerous ways -- and with questions about their own actions that day and about God's. They were both eventually helped by spiritual, healing experiences.

Even so, sharing their story and faith so publicly isn't something the Witts suddenly decided to do. It was 30 years before they told their story before a group. But the Meyersdale, Pa., church they had grown up in, where Walt was still well-remembered, had asked them to come back and speak.

From that occasion, word spread. Since 2004, the Witt brothers have spoken in churches, at outdoor events and sporting shows all over the country and in Canada. Field & Stream learned about them, and that led to the article and their return to those Pennsylvania woods.

It also led to Mark Witt speaking for the first time since the shooting with the man who pulled the trigger that day in 1974. He declined to participate in the Field & Stream article, but did explain details lost over the years and resolved some speculation that arose at the time about what happened.

"It was a freak accident. He cleared up a lot of the things," said Mark, who had been writing a book about his experiences. "And I told him, 'I hope that one day you go to Heaven and you get to meet my father.'

"He has never gotten over the accident," Witt said. "And it was truly an accident how it happened. I have told him - as my mom did the day after he shot my father - I told him that our family has forgiven him, that we have moved on, that God has opened so many doors for us to tell people about our dad and to tell people about Our Heavenly Father."

Mark and Dan Witt both have remained hunters. They are careful, he said, but the woods remain a respite from stressful jobs and a reminder of good times with their dad.

The brothers have themselves written their story in a small evangelistic tract called "Mistaken Identity." They've shared it with thousands as they travel and talk about their father and a tragedy that has turned into an opportunity to share their faith.

"We both love the outdoors, and we get to speak at a lot of hunting events and share hunting tips and things like that," Mark said. "We obviously share the most important thing, and that's where you're going to spend eternity and knowing for sure that you can know that. ...

"I tell people my dad was ready. He obviously wasn't planning on dying that day, but he was prepared and ready," Mark said. "One minute he was preparing to talk about the streets of gold and in the next minute he's in Heaven walking on them. That's what matters."

For a copy of the tract written by the Witt brothers, "Mistaken Identity," email Mark Witt at 1way2heaven@gmx.com